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As a nation well known for being BANG AVERAGE (Ed: Great name for a Podcast) at a game we so lovingly created, it’s only right for the rest of the world to let England have their moment after the most satisfying week in our national team’s recent history (sadly, that’s probably not far off the […]

HOW NOT TO PLAY McDonald’s FIFA World Cup Fantasy Football Check out the previous post from @JamesMartin013 looking at How to actually play the game, where he reads through the rules and tries to make sense of it all – Read Here In this case, at the request of my friend Ryan, from FantasyYIRMA, and in […]

Fantasy football is the only reason I have paused my playlist entitled “world in motion” for the first time since Harry Kane’s dramatic late winner against Tunisia in the first group game. What a first gameweek it has been with several of the big boys failing to register three points (or even one point in […]

World Cup Day 2 – That Ronaldo fella is ok I guess… Written by @ipredictapayet “Ronaldo isn’t even a free kick specialist, people just think he is because the ones that go in look really good. This one’s going into the wall…” is what I said to my father-in-law in the 88th minute of […]

The World Cup 2018 is finally here!! Over the past 2 weeks we have put together Group Previews and Podcasts for each of the EIGHT groups in Russia. In addition we have our own BangAverage mini-league for you to join using the Official FIFA game in association with McDonalds… CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR LEAGUE (CODE […]

So with the official FIFA Fantasy Football Game released on Thursday 7th June, I tasked our FY resident Oxford University Brainbox @JamesMartin013 to read through the rules of the game and try to make sense of it all. Exactly the right man for the job and nothing to do with me wanting to sit out […]

It’s not the most obvious of places to cast an eye over, but there will be more than a few of you keeping up with events in the Icelandic capital at the end of your working week.

At the time of writing, Fulham’s Brede Hangeland features in 13.9% of Fantasy Premier League teams, with John Arne Riise – his fellow defender for both Fulham and Norway – popping up in 8.3% of them.

Given that the amount of Fantasy bosses has now exceeded 2.3million, then that makes for a fair chunk of you who’ll be anxious to hear of the fate of Hangeland and Riise on international duty in Reykjavik, where an injury could wreck your week.

Norway play Slovenia at home next Tuesday too. A pull here or a strain there and suddenly the duo are out of their club sides, and more importantly they throw your plans into disarray as well.

International breaks have long been the scourge of club managers, but what about the problems they cause Fantasy ones?

Without the power of Sir Alex Ferguson you can’t tell the Holland boss Louis van Gaal to leave Robin van Persie out of the World Cup qualifier in Budapest next Tuesday because you’re thinking of making him your captain when Manchester United face Wigan at Old Trafford the following Saturday and you want him to be fresh.

Similarly, Eden Hazard might not have far to travel for Friday’s qualifier in Cardiff, but the Belgian has got another game at home to Croatia on the Tuesday and you want that little assist-making machine in top condition for Chelsea’s highly-charged trip to QPR.

And what’s that Roy? Ashley Cole has got an ankle problem that’s keeping him out of the Moldova game? Good. Now send him back to Chelsea, get them to find all the cotton wool they can get their hands on and don’t you dare think about picking him when England play Ukraine.

Fantasy bosses have to be selfish when watching their players in club action in cup competitions too of course – although you might have a team in one of those leagues on the side – yet somehow it is easier to take when a blow affects one of your boys when in their club colours as opposed to their national shirt. Club 1 Country 0.

For the clubs who lose those players for a week to 10 days, it almost becomes a case of the bigger they are the harder they fall.

Manchester United have published a list of 24 of their players who are on international duty over the next week or so on their website, as have Liverpool for their 19 – which is probably the size of their entire squad as a whole after recent dealings – whilst Chelsea have six in the England squad alone.

It’ll be next Wednesday at the earliest before their managers see all of them again, as air miles are clocked up and tired limbs are transported across all four corners of the globe.

Will they be back in top shape? Has the jet lag affected them? Is it possible for Luis Suarez to get from Montevideo to Sunderland’s Stadium of Light in less than four days? Do they do direct flights?

All are questions that many will consider in the days to come, as eyes dart furiously from Argentina to Amsterdam and virtually everywhere in between.